15% rise in tourist ar­rivals in first nine months of 2018 – NSO

To­tal in­bound vis­i­tors for Septem­ber were es­ti­mated at 279,010, an in­crease of 15.6 per cent when com­pared to the cor­re­spond­ing month in 2017, the NSO said.

A to­tal of 239,377 in­bound tourist trips were car­ried out for hol­i­day pur­poses, while a fur­ther 21,416 were un­der­taken for busi­ness pur­poses. In­bound tourists from EU Mem­ber States went up by 11.9 per cent to 224,405 when com­pared to the cor­re­spond­ing month in 2017.

Most in­bound tourists were aged be­tween 25 and 44 (39.5 per cent), fol­lowed by those within the 45-64 age bracket (33.0 per cent). To­tal nights spent went up by 10.2 per cent when com­pared to Septem­ber 2017, sur­pass­ing 2.0 mil­lion nights.

The largest share of guest nights (48.4 per cent) was spent in col­lec­tive ac­com­mo­da­tion es­tab­lish­ments. To­tal tourist ex­pen­di­ture was es­ti­mated at €242.7 mil­lion, an in­crease of 4.8 per cent over the cor­re­spond­ing month in 2017.

In­bound tourist trips for the first nine months of 2018 reached 2,036,841, an in­crease of 15.6 per cent over the same pe­riod in 2017.

To­tal nights spent by in­bound tourists went up by 13.5 per cent, sur­pass­ing 14.8 mil­lion nights. To­tal tourism ex­pen­di­ture was es­ti­mated at nearly €1.7 bil­lion, 9.3 per cent higher than that recorded for 2017. To­tal ex­pen­di­ture per capita stood at €827, a de­crease of 5.4 per cent when com­pared to 2017.